Coronavirus will be “forever” and people will probably need regular vaccinations against it, said a former chief scientific adviser to the UK government.
Prof Mark Walport, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), compared the virus to influenza, saying that repeated inoculations on a global scale would almost certainly be required to control it.
He said BBC Radio 4’s Today program coronavirus would not be “a disease like smallpox that could be removed by vaccination”.
“This is a virus that will be with us forever in one form or another and will most likely require repeated vaccinations,” he said. “That people, just like flu, will need regular revaccination.”
His remarks came ahead of an announcement by the English chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, who said it would be “foolish” to plan for the winter based on having a vaccine for coronavirus.
Walport said it was possible the virus could “get out of control”, with the percentage of positive tests around the UK increasing as the R-number hovered between 0.9 and 1.1, but he said that more targeted, localized measures can be used instead of a complete lockdown.
The scientist said he was concerned about the spread of the virus. “You only have to see what’s going on in France, Spain, [and] in [South] Korea, which got it under control very quickly and now sees an increase in cases. And so this infection is with us. ”
He said less than one in five people in the UK had the virus, and 80% of people remained susceptible to Covid-19.
“It is this terrible balance between trying to minimize the harm to people from the infection while society continues,” he said. “People have argued very strongly that generic lockdowns are not the answer. At first it had to be the case, but now we can be a lot more focused in the approach. ”
However, he warned of draconian measures that could be taken if the virus got out of control, adding that it was an “enormous tragedy” that many people in nursing homes caught the virus and died after people from hospitals were discharged to care while they were infected with coronavirus.
His remarks came after the head of the World Health Organization said the world would have to clean up the pandemic within two years. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it took two years to overcome the Spanish flu in the early 20th century, but that advances in technology could allow Covid-19 to be stopped in a “shorter time”.
“We have a disadvantage of globalization, proximity, connectivity, but an advantage of better technology, so we hope to end this pandemic in less than two years,” he said on Friday in Geneva. “With more connectivity, the virus obviously has a better chance of spreading. But at the same time, we also have the technology to stop it, and the knowledge to stop it. ”
It came as South Korea reported the most daily infections since early March and expanded social distance measures across the country.
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